[Coco] Altair 8800

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

----- "J.P. Samson" <coco+list at jeanpaulsamson.com> wrote:

> On Apr. 2, 2010, at 4:52 PM, Dave Kelly wrote:
> 
> > On 04/02/2010 01:27 PM, Roger Taylor wrote:
> >> At 12:54 PM 4/2/2010, you wrote:
> >>
> >>> Ed Roberts dies.
> >>>
> >>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20001616-56.html
> >>
> >> Only 68? What was the cause?
> >>
> > did not say
> 
> Roberts had been fighting pneumonia for an extended period is what I read.

Pneumonia is a symptom.  The disease that causes it may be the "common" cold (hundreds of strains), influenza (dozens of strains), asthma, or several other causes.  My closest friend died a couple of months back of "complications from pneumonia" that were started by asthma, but once you're in a hospital [aka germ farm], many other diseases have free rein and fresh meat and will attack wherever they find weakness.

And "only 68"?  If I reach 56, it'll be a record in my paternal line.  About 15 months hence.  (Unlike my father, I haven't spent the years since before 50 under the close attention of the VA for a used-up liver -- he married into a stronger line that can hold their booze -- I drink more than he ever did [not bragging, just admitting] but I have never been a violent drunk like he was, I just drink [to excess] until I'm mellow).  Prior generations died earlier, generally of Black Lung.  That Y-chromosome ends with me, no branches in the line for at least four generations.

To get sort of on-topic for the list, I'm still looking for the version (if it was different) and documentation of the "Teachers version" of Klendathu.  The RSCCs where I worked never saw a copy and as a Heinlein fan, I'd like to know what the teachers were supposed to tell the kids a decade before that crappy movie loosely based on _Starship Troopers_ hit the screen.
-- 
Ward Griffiths        wdg3rd at comcast.net